


Burning backwards

by Callmyname



Series: Burning [2]
Category: Tenet
Genre: M/M, Major Character Injury, Typos, bad language, continuity errors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:15:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29406810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callmyname/pseuds/Callmyname
Summary: Fire breaks out. Running parallel with burning building, but from Neil's POV
Relationships: Neil(tenet) and OC, Neil/The Protagonist (Tenet)
Series: Burning [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160255
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Major edit.
> 
> Even more edit.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil is woken by a fire

Knock knock.

I staggered out of bed. There was a strong smell of smoke, bitter and toxic filling the air. Fuck. The smoke alarm - I had never changed the battery.

I still had my jeans on from yesterday,- having just fallen into bed after working on my studies. Yuk. And they felt horrible as Mum had still not found the money to get the washing machine fixed,. No wash denim, eh? Maybe I could sell them on eBay to some rich idiot. Though it's true -they did now fit me fantastically. 

" There's a terrible fire downstairs. I was sent to wake you" . 

Mum came through, with a bucket in her hand and shoved it at me. "Do something useful with that." She disappeared outside and I could hear her knocking. 

The kid looked at me - "come in, give me a hand -hold that" 

.....

Splash. Fuck the bloody kid has dropped the bucket on me. "Bloody hold that, dude. Come on, hands there, whilst I turn the tap" . I struggled to unjam the tap - as everything in this place, it was badly maintained and did not work properly. But what were we to do!? The landLord would just take our deposit if we moved out. And at least no-one was dealing drugs in our block. Or on the game. 

Oh well that's the jeans washed I suppose. To be quite honest with myself, having a raging head-on was not helping either, and a cold bucket of water was probably what I needed right now. Fuck fuck come on brain. I need to get it together. Because right now, reality was up in smoke. And dreaming of a hot fireman come to save me? It ain't happening, is it? 

Huh weird the way that image had insinuated itself into my thoughts the last month or so.


	2. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May be wrong - trying to get it compatible with my last fic

Mum had vanished next door. Meanwhile I had a kid to babysit, and a fire to report. I really do get dropped in it. Okay - I get him onto the balcony, and make the call. It's the only point where my phone has decent signal anyway. Which I never understood - I suppose maybe there was some concrete in the place after all? 

Ah, I realise hear sirens. So, that's good, I suppose. "Stay here" I say. It's the safest place right now.

The corridor had our boxes of recycling in it - dry newspaper. Books. Prints on the wall. Wooden panels. Loads and loads of old magazines in those stupid cardboard files. Oh fuck. They are alight. I could also hear the flames in the hallway. I grab the towel, and do my best "Lawrence of Arabia" impression. Head on down , with my damp towel, soot smeared on my face.

Air-flow was doing a great job in driving the flames higher. I had to get that door closed if we were going to have a chance. The door was not burning, but that was about the only good thing I could see about the place. I screamed- branded myself on the door handle. Melted plastic over a metal coating, and the plastic was now melted into my hand as I tried to turn it. There was a dreadful smell of burning flesh. My flesh. But I had to close it. It took some struggle to get it closed from down here. 

\---

I grabbed the bucket, stuck my hand into it. And attempted to damp the fire, but nope - shelves were just about to collapse on me. I had to get out of here. Crawled back the other way. Through the kitchen along the lino and onto the balcony. 

The kid from downstairs was crying. I put my arm round them and tried to remain calm. 

Then this huge black man dressed in fire-fighters kit turned up, and took control of the situation.!yeah the man out of my dreams. .


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am pretty sure I am getting inversion wrong.

Fucking great. So he had to rescue the kid first - I got that. Still scary though. Nope actually fucking terrifying. I can hear screams from downstairs. So.. 

I am sat on the balcony, watching his receding back. I stick the mask on and take a deep breathe of oxygen. My hands really hurt - there is a huge brand right across them, it looks like a T.

Then I see him coming back. There is something really peculiar about how he is moving. He says something in a strange language - then " we need to go back inside. Just trust me - I have a ladder. "

He grabs me, and what ? We need to go back inside. Is he serious? 

We duck through the kitchen. He is fiddling with the gas cooker. I can hear gas hissing. Okay -he is turning it off, I guess? 

He drags me into my bedroom - and I find myself on his shoulders somehow. He is incredibly strong and fast - gets us both out the window, and onto this ladder in no time at all. My head is swimming with pain and nausea - I had breathed enough of that smoke, and I am trying desperately to breathe properly. it's all a blur - he is helping me, because I cannot grip the rungs safely. The ladder is wedged against the huge tree, which is why I did not see it from the balcony. It's just round the corner of the building against that strange slot running up the wall. Maybe it was meant to be a fire escape?! Whatever, so that actually makes it easier. And on better days, have climbed that tree loads of times! Bloody hell he is strong. I am swooning like the damsel in distress. 


	4. Chapter 4

I have twisted my ankle. My hands hurt, and there was an explosion from upstairs. I also cannot breathe properly, though the mask helps

He goes to grab me in a fireman's lift - and we are headed for an ambulance. Sure. He hits the doors hard, and puts me inside. Jumps in with me. 

The sirens bellow, and off we go. I am laid out on the stretcher, and okay. Oxygen with pain relief. Things fade out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time skip coming up


	5. I wake up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The protagonist + Neil spend some (indeter

This is incredible. 

He explains everything. Inversion. Tenet. The fact that I am officially dead. But also - he looks really sad - that My Mum really is dead. That she died downstairs. . 

My hero needs me. God the way he looks at me. Well, I can think of only one way to pay him back. Ah, nope. :shut up brain: he needs me as? 

It seems I have work to do, lots of it. 

We are sat in this strange room, and he hands me file upon file of cold cases. People who are also dead. But this time, likely to be for real if we cannot solve who is going to murder them. 

He says he wants me to work on culling it down to people we managed to get to in time - and that the date crunching will get easier once we have found a few of them. 

He also explains that I really need to get my hands healed up, before I am dropped back into the past! Like WTF. 

My life as a secret agent saving the world from the future. Seriously?


	6. Backwards is boring?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil and the Protagonist struggle with an awkward moment in the middle of the night.

Neil opened his eyes, and looked up at Bailey. He was being laid down on his bed, and that must have been his arms he had felt around him. 

Wow. He could do with being woken by that sight more often.

" You were having a nightmare. I could hear you screaming in your sleep. Sorry, I just thought you needed someone near. I will sit up for a bit, I can catch up on sleep later. " 

" Yes" , he said. "I was back in the fire, then I felt you go to pick me up, and - well here I am. You have saved me again. " Neil smiled sheepishly up at him. 

He held out his hand. 

"Come on - your bed, I don't bite, and you would make a great teddy bear. " oh God. He" /he blushed/ 

\-----  
Neil drifted off to sleep. The arms around him felt so reassuring. He could get all too easily addicted to that warm body. A gentle murmur of quiet reassuring words - ah, he is quoting "the owl and the pussycat" . Is this guy for real? .

**Author's Note:**

> Intend to write random stories of what Neil and the Protagonist got up to in future chapters.I have 
> 
> Also as someone who has just blitzed RP films, spot the reference game.


End file.
